Illinois test scores show split results

More Illinois students passed state exams this year even as a larger, more diverse group of students were tested, according to information released Wednesday.

Elementary school students passed 79.1 percent of the state reading, math and science exams they took last spring, up slightly from 78.7 percent a year ago.

The increase came as an estimated 59,000 additional students took the state exams. Many of the new test-takers, roughly 6 percent of the total, were children who speak little English and for the first time were required to take the same standardized exams given to other students.

The state previously gave such students a different exam, the Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English, but had to stop after losing a battle with federal officials over whether it lived up to the standards of the No Child Left Behind education law.

Although schools allotted extra time and made other accommodations, many limited-English students struggled with the new format -- and local school districts might feel the sting in their scores, state educators cautioned.

Reading results for limited-English students dropped most dramatically, falling across 3rd through 8th grades even as overall reading scores increased. The reading exams had been faulted for not being aligned with what students are required to learn in 3rd grade, state education officials said.

"There is a dip, and that's a dip we expected," said Joyce Zurkowski, a testing expert with the Illinois State Board of Education.

The number of bilingual children who passed math exams proved more stable, with 3rd graders passing at a higher rate than last year.

Passing rates changed little at the high school level. Juniors passed 52.5 percent of the state reading, math and science exams. This follows a passing rate of 52.6 percent in 2007 -- the lowest recorded since Illinois first gave the Prairie State Achievement Exam in 2001 -- and 54.3 percent in 2006.

This summer state education officials announced that they would re-evaluate nearly 1 million reading and math scores after auditors determined the initial process was flawed.

In an unprecedented move, the state education agency hired two independent groups to investigate dramatic swings of up to 10 percentage points. Year-to-year shifts typically are measured in single digits.

State education officials on Wednesday affirmed the integrity of the scores after they were rebalanced to allow a comparison of results from one year to the next. Because the exam questions change every year, as do the students who take them, a statistical reckoning is required before educators can judge how a student, teacher or entire school performed, said Richard Hill of the National Center for the Improvement of Education Assessment, which helped adjust the scores.

"The questions might have been harder this year or they might have been easier this year, and the purpose here is to smooth that out across different years," Hill said to board members of the state education agency, which held its monthly meeting in Bloomington.

This year, Illinois public school students in 3rd through 8th grades took the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in reading and math; 4th and 7th graders also took a science exam.

High school students sweated through the Prairie State exams in math, reading and science, as well as the ACT college entrance exam.

- - -

Test results mixed

Illinois students overall fared better on state reading and math exams this year, research shows. While slightly more elementary students passed, high school results were virtually unchanged.